Present-day Turkish censorship result of Genocide denial policy: Assange

PanARMENIAN.Net - Censorship in Turkey has advanced because many were happy to see that with respect to Kurdish and Armenian Genocide issues. Now it has spread onto everything else, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said during an online Q&A session with the participants of the Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, Panorama.am reported.

Samvel Martirosyan – information security expert who was invited to participate in the event – told Life.Panorama.am that Edward Snowden was also scheduled to appear online in the forum, however in the last minute he was replaced by Assange due to technical issues.

“In general, Assange criticized internet governance methods. He cited Turkey as an example of internet censorship with regards to Kurdish and Armenian Genocide issues, with open discussions on the issue avoided in the country. He stressed that Turkey keeps the Ottoman archives closed due to the Armenian Genocide issue,” Martirosyan said.

According to Martirosyan, in another event entitled Human Rights Protection on the Internet an internet activist from Turkey slammed suppression of the freedom of speech in his country, alluding to the 45.000 websites and YouTube video hosting ban. A Turkish official responded that the measure aimed to protect children rights in the Internet. “The explanation was laughed off by everyone in the audience. Turkey is one of very few countries where freedom of speech is in dire situation, with the issue as a matter of concern among the event participants,” added Martirosyan.